Digitized  by  the  Internet  Archive 

in  2007  with  funding  from 

IVIicrosoft  Corporation 


http://www.archive.org/details/changedlifeOOdrumiala 


THE    CHANGED    LIFE 


'  The  earth  is  full  of  the  glory  of  the  Lord  " 


"fe^  V$^  °}^'^  vA'C^  vA'C"  vA'C°  vA!C°  vA("  vA^v^  yA!v°  yA'v°  '^A'v^ 


Jhe  Changed  Life 


BY 


HENRY   DRUMMOND 


r'^S,. 


NEW  YORK:  JAMES  POTT  AND 
COMPANY  Jt  ji  jk  jt  ^  jt  MCM 


°J  S^  "vS'J"  °/S^  vS^  °/S'C"  v5^  °/S^  °/S^  °/rt^  vA^  vA'\"  vA'^ 


COKV  RIGHT 

JAMBS  POTT  &  CO. 
1891 


PREFACE. 

Last  autumn,  in  a  book-shop  in  California,  the 
author  found  a  little  book  with  his  name  upon 
the  title-page — a  book  which  he  did  not  know 
existed  ;  which  he  never  wrote ;  nor  baptized 
with  the  title  which  it  bore.  This  stray  publi- 
cation— taken  from  shorthand  notes  of  a  spoken 
Address  —  he  does  not  grudge.  Already,  it 
seems,  it  has  done  its  small  measure  of  good. 
But  owing  to  the  imperfections  which  it  con- 
tains it  has  been  thought  right  to  issue  a  more 
complete  edition. 

The  theme,  like  its  predecessors  in  this  se- 
ries, represents  but  a  single  aspect  of  its  great 


6  PREFACE. 

subject — the  man-ward  side.  The  light  and 
shade  is  apportioned  with  this  in  view.  And 
the  reader's  kind  attention  is  asked  to  this 
limitation,  lest  he  wonder  at  points  being  left 
in  shadow,  which  theology  has  always,  and 
rightly,  taught  us  to  emphasize. 

It  was  the  hearing  of  a  simple  talk  by  a 
friend  to  some  plain  people  in  a  Highland 
deer-forest  which  first  called  the  author's  atten- 
tion to  the  practicalness  of  this  solution  of 
the  cardinal  problem  of  Christian  experience. 
What  follows  owes  a  large  debt  to  that  Sun- 
day morning. 


mc .  all 

TKlltb  .  unveilcD .  face 

"Keflectina 

Bs  .  a .  /IMrror 

XTbc .  (Slorg .  ot .  tbc  .  XorJ) 

Bre .  transtormcJ) 

fnto .  tbe  .  same    Image 

3from  .  (5lori2  .  to  .  ©lots 

;even  •  as  .  from  .  tbe  .  iorD 

^be .  Sptcit. 


THE   CHANGED   LIFE. 

"  I  PROTEST  that  if  some  great  Power  would  agree  to 
make  me  always  think  what  is  true  and  do  what  is 
right,  on  condition  of  being  turned  into  a  sort  of  clock 
and  wound  up  every  morning,  I  should  instantly  close 
with  the  offer."  : 


These  are  the  words  of  Mr.  Huxley.  The 
infinite  desirability,  the  infinite  difficulty  of 
being  good — the  theme  is  as  old  as  humanity. 
The  man  does  not  live  from  whose  deeper 
being  the  same  confession  has  not  risen,  or 
who  would  not  give  his  all  to-morrow,  if  he 
could  "close  with  the  offer"  of  becoming  a 
better  man. 


lO  THE  CHANGED   LIFE. 

I  propose  to  make  that  offer  now.  In  all 
seriousness,  without  being  "  turned  into  a  sort 
of  clock,"  the  end  can  be  attained.  Under 
the  right  conditions  it  is  as  natural  for  char- 
acter to  become  beautiful  as  for  a  flower;  and 
if  on  God's  earth  there  is  not  some  machinery 
for  effecting  it,  the  supreme  gift  to  the  world 
has  been  forgotten.  This  is  simply  what 
man  was  made  for.  With  Browning :  *'  I  say 
that  Man  was  made  to  grow,  not  stop."  Or 
in  the  deeper  words  of  an  older  Book  :  "  Whom 
He  did  foreknovy.  He  also  did  predestinate 
.  .  .  to  be  conformed  to  the  Image  of  His 
Son." 

Let  me  begin  by  naming,  and  in  part  dis- 
carding, some  processes  in  vogue  already,  for 
producing  better  lives.  These  processes  are 
far  from  wrong ;  in  their  place  they  may  even 
be  essential.  One  ventures  to  disparage  them 
only  because  they  do  not  turn  out  the  most 
perfect  possible  work. 


THE   CHANGED   LIFE.  II 

The  first  imperfect  method  is  to  rely  on 
Resolution.  In  will-power,  in  mere  spasms  of 
earnestness  there  is  no  salvation.  Struggle, 
effort,  even  agony,  have  their  place  in  Chris- 
tianity, as  we  shall  see ;  but  this  is  not  where 
they  come  in.  In  mid-Atlantic  the  other  day, 
the  Etruria,  in  which  I  was  sailing,  suddenly 
stopped.  Something  had  gone  wrong  with 
the  engines.  There  were  five  hundred  able- 
bodied  men  on  board  the  ship.  Do  you  think 
if  we  had  gathered  together  and  pushed  against 
the  mast  we  could  have  pushed  it  on  ?  When 
one  attempts  to  sanctify  himself  by  effort,  he 
is  trying  to  make  his  boat  go  by  pushing 
against  the  mast.  He  is  like  a  drowning  man 
trying  to  lift  himself  out  of  the  water  by  pull- 
ing at  the  hair  of  his  own  head.  Christ  held 
up  this  method  almost  to  ridicule  when  He 
said,  "  Which  of  you  by  taking  thought  can 
add  a  cubit  to  his  stature  ?  "  The  one  redeem- 
ing feature  of  the  self-sufificient  method  is  this 


12  THE  CHANGED   LIFE. 

— that  those  who  try  it  find  out  almost  at  once 
that  it  will  not  gain  the  goal. 

Another  experimenter  says :  "  But  that  is 
not  my  method.  I  have  seen  the  folly  of  a 
mere  wild  struggle  in  the  dark.  I  work  on  a 
principle.  My  plan  is  not  to  waste  power  on 
random  effort,  but  to  concentrate  on  a  single 
sin.  By  taking  one  at  a  time,  and  crucifying  it 
steadily,  I  hope  in  the  end  to  extirpate  all." 
To  this,  unfortunately,  there  are  four  objections: 
For  one  thing,  life  is  too  short ;  the  name  of 
sin  is  Legion.  For  another  thing,  to  deal  with 
individual  sins  is  to  leave  the  rest  of  the  nature 
for  the  time  untouched.  In  the  third  place,  a 
single  combat  with  a  special  sin  does  not  affect 
the  root  and  spring  of  the  disease.  If  one  only 
of  the  channels  of  sin  be  obstructed,  experience 
points  to  an  almost  certain  overflow  through 
some  other  part  of  the  nature.  Partial  con- 
version is  almost  always  accompanied  by  such 
moral  leakage,  for  the  pent-up  energies  accumu- 


THE   CHANGED   LIFE.  1 3 

late  to  the  bursting  point,  and  the  last  state  of 
that  soul  may  be  worse  than  the  first.  In  the 
last  place,  religion  does  not  consist  in  negatives, 
in  stopping  this  sin  and  stopping  that.  The 
perfect  character  can  never  be  produced  with  a 
pruning-knife.  ' 

But  a  third  protests  :  "  So  be  it.  1  make 
no  attempt  to  stop  sins  one  by  one.  My 
method  is  just  the  opposite.  I  copy  the 
virtues  one  by  one."  The  dif^culty  about  the 
copying  method  is  that  it  is  apt  to  be 
mechanical.  One  can  always  tell  an  engrav- 
ing from  a  picture,  an  artificial  flower  from  a 
real  flower.  To  copy  virtues  one  by  one  has 
somewhat  the  same  effect  as  eradicating  the 
vices  one  by  one  ;  the  temporary  result  is 
an  overbalanced  and  incongruous  character. 
Someone  defines  2.  prig  as  "  a  creature  that 
is  over-fed  for  its  size."  One  sometimes  finds 
Christians  of  this  species — over-fed  on  one 
side  of  their   nature,  but  dismally  thin    and 


14  THE   CHANGED   LIFE. 


starved-looking  on  the  other.  The  result,  for 
instance,  of  copying  Humility,  and  adding  it 
on  to  an  otherwise  worldly  life,  is  simply 
grotesque.  A  rabid  Temperance  advocate, 
for  the  same  reason,  is  often  the  poorest  of 
creatures,  flourishing  on  a  single  virtue,  and 
quite  oblivious  that  his  Temperance  is  making 
a  worse  man  of  him  and  not  a  better.  These 
are  examples  of  fine  virtues  spoiled  by  as- 
sociation with  mean  companions.  Character 
is  a  unity,  and  all  the  virtues  must  advance 
together  to  make  the  perfect  man.  This 
method  of  sanctification,  nevertheless,  is  in 
the  true  direction.  It  is  only  in  the  details 
of  execution  that  it  fails. 

A  fourth  method  I  need  scarcely  mention, 
for  it  is  a  variation  on  those  already  named. 
It  is  the  very  young  man's  method  ;  and 
the  pure  earnestness  of  it  makes  it  almost 
desecration  to  touch  it.  It  is  to  keep  a  pri- 
vate   note-book  with    columns    for    the    days 


THE   CHANGED   LIFE.  1$ 

of  the  week,  and  a  list  of  virtues  with 
spaces  against  each  for  marks.  This,  with 
many  stern  rules  for  preface,  is  stored  away 
in  a  secret  place,  and  from  time  to  time,  at 
nightfall,  the  soul  is  arraigned  before  it  as 
before  a  private  judgment  bar.  This  living 
by  code  was  Franklin's  method  ;  and  I  sup- 
pose thousands  more  could  tell  how  they  had 
hung  up  in  their  bedrooms,  or  hid  in  lock- 
fast drawers,  the  rules  which  one  solemn  day 
they  drew  up  to  shape  their  lives.  This 
method  is  not  erroneous,  only  somehow  its 
success  is  poor.  You  bear  me  witness  that  it 
fails  ?  And  it  fails  generally  for  very  matter- 
of-fact  reasons — most  likely  because  one  day 
we  forget  the  rules. 

All  these  methods  that  have  been  named — 
the  self-sufficient  method,  the  self-crucifixion 
method,  the  mimetic  method,  and  the  diary 
method — are  perfectly  human,  perfectly  natu- 
ral, perfectly  ignorant,  and,  as  they  stand,  per- 


l6  THE  CHANGED  LIFE. 

fectly  inadequate.  It  is  not  argued,  I  repeat, 
that  they  must  be  abandoned.  Their  harm 
is  rather  that  they  distract  attention  from  the 
true  working  method,  and  secure  a  fair  result 
at  the  expense  of  the  perfect  one.  What 
that  perfect  method  is  we  shall  now  go  on 
to  ask. 


THE    FORMULA    OF    SANCTIFICA- 
TION. 

A  FORMULA,  a  receipt,  for  Sanctification — 
can  one  seriously  speak  of  this  mighty 
change  as  if  the  process  were  as  definite  as 
for  the  production  of  so  many  volts  of  elec- 
tricity ?  It  is  impossible  to  doubt  it.  Shall 
a  mechanical  experiment  succeed  infallibly, 
and  the  one  vital  experiment  of  humanity 
remain  a  chance  ?  Is  corn  to  grow  by 
method,  and  character  by  caprice  ?  If  we 
cannot  calculate  to  a  certainty  that  the  forces 
of  religion  will  do  their  work,  then  is  religion 
vain.  And  if  we  cannot  express  the  law  of 
these   forces   in   simple  words,  then   is   Chris- 


1 8  THE  CHANGED  LIFE. 

tianity    not     the     world's     religion     but     the 
world's  conundrum. 

Where,  then,  shall  one  look  for  such  a 
formula  ?  Where  one  would  look  for  any 
formula — among  the  text-books.  And  if  we 
turn  to  the  text-books  of  Christianity  we 
shall  find  a  formula  for  this  problem  as 
clear  and  precise  as  any  in  the  mechanical 
sciences.  If  this  simple  rule,  moreover,  be 
but  followed  fearlessly,  it  will  yield  the  result 
of  a  perfect  character  as  surely  as  any  result 
that  is  guaranteed  by  the  laws  of  nature. 
The  finest  expression  of  this  rule  in  Scripture, 
or  indeed  in  any  literature,  is  probably  one 
drawn  up  and  condensed  into  a  single  verse 
by  Paul.  You  will  find  it  in  a  letter — the 
second  to  the  Corinthians — written  by  him 
to  some  Christian  people  who,  in  a  city  which 
was  a  byword  for  depravity  and  licentious- 
ness, were  seeking  the  higher  life.  To  see 
the   point   of  the  words  we  must   take  them 


THE   FORMULA   OF   SANCTIFICATION.        19 

from  the  immensely  improved  rendering  of 
the  Revised  translation,  for  the  older  Version 
in  this  case  greatly  obscures  the  sense.  They 
are  these  :  "  We  all,  with  unveiled  face  re- 
flecting as  a  mirror  the  glory  of  the  Lord, 
are  transformed  into  the  same  image  from 
glory  to  glory,  even  as  from  the  Lord  the 
Spirit." 

■  Now  observe  at  the  outset  the  entire  con- 
tradiction of  all.  our  previous  efforts,  in  the 
simple  passive  "  we  are  transformed."  We 
are  changed,  as  the  Old  Version  has  it — 
we  do  not  change  ourselves.  No  man  can 
change  himself.  Throughout  the  New  Testa- 
ment you  will  find  that  wherever  these  moral 
and  spiritual  transformations  are  described 
the  verbs  are  in  the  passive.  Presently  it 
will  be  pointed  out  that  there  is  a  rationale 
in  this  ;  but  meantime  do  not  toss  these 
words  aside  as  if  this  passivity  denied  all 
human  effort  or  ignored  intelligible  law.     What 


20  THE   CHANGED   LIFE. 

is  implied  for  the  soul  here  is  no  more  than 
is  everywhere  claimed  for  the  body.  In 
physiology  the  verbs  describing  the  processes 
of  growth  are  in  the  passive.  Growth  is  not 
voluntary  ;  it  takes  place,  it  happens,  it 
is  wrought  upon  matter.  So  here.  "  Ye 
must  be  born  again"  —  we  cannot  born  our- 
selves. "  Be  not  conformed  to  this  world  but 
be  ye  trayisformed''''  —  we  are  subjects  to  a 
transforming  influence,  we  do  not  transform 
ourselves.  Not  more  certain  is  it  that  it  is 
something  outside  the  thermometer  that  pro- 
duces a  change  in  the  thermometer,  than  it 
is  something  outside  the  soul  of  man  that 
produces  a  moral  change  upon  him.  That 
he  must  be  susceptible  to  that  change,  that 
he  must  be  a  party  to  it,  goes  without  saying ; 
but  that  neither  his  aptitude  nor  his  will  can 
produce  it,  is  equally  certain. 

Obvious  as  it  ought  to  seem,  this  may  be 
to  some   an  almost  startling   revelation.     The 


THE  FORMULA  OF  SANCTIFICATION.       21 

change  we  have  been  striving  after  is  not  to 
be  produced  by  any  more  striving  after.  It  is 
to  be  wrought  upon  us  by  the  moulding  of 
hands  beyond  our  own.  As  the  branch  ascends, 
and  the  bud  bursts,  and  the  fruit  reddens  under 
the  co-operation  of  influences  from  the  outside 
air,  so  man  rises  to  the  higher  stature  under 
invisible  pressures  from  without.  The  radical 
defect  of  all  our  former  methods  of  sanctifica- 
tion  was  the  attempt  to  generate  from  within 
that  which  can  only  be  wrought  upon  us  from 
without.  According  to  the  first  Law  of  Mo- 
tion :  Every  body  continues  in  its  state  of  rest, 
or  of  uniform  motion  in  a  straight  line,  except 
in  so  far  as  it  may  be  compelled  by  impressed 
forces  to  change  that  state.  This  is  also  a  first 
law  of  Christianity.  Every  man's  character 
remains  as  it  is,  or  continues  in  the  direction  in 
which  it  is  going,  until  it  is  compelled  by  hn- 
pressed  forces  to  change  that  state.  Our  fail- 
ure has  been  the  failure  to  put  ourselves  in  the 


22  THE  CHANGED   LIFE. 

way  of  the  impressed  forces.  There  is  a  clay, 
and  there  is  a  Potter ;  we  have  tried  to  get  the 
clay  to  mould  the  clay. 

Whence,  then,  these  pressures,  and  where 
this  Potter?  The  answer  of  the  formula  is 
"  By  reflecting  as  a  mirror  the  glory  of  the 
Lord  we  are  changed."  But  this  is  not  very 
clear.  What  is  the  "  glory "  of  the  Lord,  and 
how  can  mortal  man  reflect  it,  and  how  can 
that  act  as  an  "  impressed  force  "  in  moulding 
him  to  a  nobler  form  ?  The  word  "  glory  " 
—  the  word  which  has  to  bear  the  weight  of 
holding  those  "  impressed  forces  " —  is  a  stran- 
ger in  current  speech,  and  our  first  duty  is  to 
seek  out  its  equivalent  in  working  English. 
It  suggests  at  first  a  radiance  of  some  kind, 
something  dazzling  or  glittering,  some  halo 
such  as  the  old  masters  loved  to  paint  round  the 
heads  of  their  Ecce  Homos.  But  that  is  paint, 
mere  matter,  the  visible  symbol  of  some  unseen 
thing.  What  is  that  unseen  thing  ?    It  is  that  of 


THE  FORMULA   OF  SANCTIFICATION.       23 

all  unseen  things  the  most  radiant,  the  most 
beautiful,  the  most  Divine,  and  that  is  Char- 
acter. On  earth,  in  Heaven,  there  is  nothing 
so  great,  so  glorious  as  this.  The  word  has 
many  meanings ;  in  ethics  it  can  have  but  one. 
Glory  is  character  and  nothing  less,  and  it  can 
be  nothing  more.  The  earth  is  "  full  of  the 
glory  of  the  Lord,"  because  it  is  full  of  His 
character.  The  "  Beauty  of  the  Lord "  is 
character.  "  The  effulgence  of  His  Glory "  is 
character.  "  The  Glory  of  the  Only  Begotten  " 
is  character,  the  character  which  is  "  fulness  of 
grace  and  truth."  And  when  God  told  His 
people  His  name  He  simply  gave  them  His 
character,  His  character  which  was  Himself : 
"  And  the  Lord  proclaimed  the  Name  of  the 
Lord  ...  the  Lord,  the  Lord  God,  mer- 
ciful and  gracious,  long-suffering  and  abundant 
in  goodness  and  truth."  Glory  then  is  not 
something  intangible,  or  ghostly,  or  transcen- 
dental.     If    it  were    this  how  could  Paul  ask 


24  THE  CHANGED  LIFE. 

men  to  reflect  it  ?  Stripped  of  its  physical 
ensvvathement  it  is  Beauty,  moral  and  spiritual 
Beauty,  Beauty  infinitely  real,  infinitely  ex- 
alted, yet  infinitely  near  and  infinitely  com- 
municable. 

With  this  explanation  read  over  the  sentence 
once  more  in  paraphrase:  We  all  reflecting  as 
a  mirror  the  character  of  Christ  are  transformed 
into  the  same  Image  from  character  t6  char- 
acter— from  a  poor  character  to  a  better  one, 
from  a  better  one  to  one  a  little  better  still, 
from  that  to  one  still  more  complete,  until 
by  slow  degrees  the  Perfect  Image  is  attained. 
Here  the  solution  of  the  problem  of  sanctifica- 
tion  is  compressed  into  a  sentence  :  Reflect  the 
character  of  Christ  and  you  will  become  like 
Christ. 

All  men  are  mirrors — that  is  the  first  law  on 
which  this  formula  is  based.  One  of  the 
aptest  descriptions  of  a  human  being  is  that  he 
is  a  mirror.      As  we  sat  at  table  to-night   the 


THE  FORMULA   OF  SANCTIFICATION.       25 

world  in  which  each  of  us  lived  and  moved 
throughout  this  day  was  focussed  in  the  room. 
What  we  saw  as  we  looked  at  one  another  was 
not  one  another,  but  one  another's  world.  We 
were  an  arrangement  of  mirrors.  The  scenes 
we  saw  were  all  reproduced;  the  people  we  met 
walked  to  and  fro ;  they  spoke,  they  bowed, 
they  passed  us  by,  did  everything  over  again  as 
if  it  had  been  real.  When  we  talked,  we  were 
but  looking  at  our  own  mirror  and  describing 
what  flitted  across  it ;  our  listening  was  not 
hearing,  but  seeing  —  we  but  looked  on  our 
neighbour's  mirror.  All  human  intercourse  is  a 
seeing  of  reflections.  I  meet  a  stranger  in  a 
railway  carriage.  The  cadence  of  his  first  word 
tells  me  he  is  English,  and  comes  from  York- 
shire. Without  knowing  it  he  has  reflected 
his  birthplace,  his  parents,  and  the  long  history 
of  their  race.  Even  physiologically  he  is  a  mir- 
ror. His  second  sentence  records  that  he  is  a 
politician,  and  a  faint  inflexion  in  the  way  he 


26  THE  CHANGED   LIFE. 

pronounces  The  Times  reveals  his  party.  In 
his  next  remarks  I  see  reflected  a  whole  world 
of  experiences.  The  books  he  has  read,  the 
people  he  has  met,  the  influences  that  have 
played  upon  him  and  made  him  the  man  he  is 
— these  are  all  registered  there  by  a  pen  which 
lets  nothing  pass,  and  whose  writing  can  never 
be  blotted  out.  What  I  am  reading  in  him 
meantime  he  also  is  reading  in  me  ;  and  before 
the  journey  is  over  we  could  half  write  each 
other's  lives.  Whether  we  like  it  or  not,  we 
live  in  glass  houses.  The  mind,  the  memory, 
the  soul,  is  simply  a  vast  chamber  panelled 
with  looking-glass.  And  upon  this  miraculous 
arrangement  and  endowment  depends  the 
capacity  of  mortal  souls  to  "  reflect  the  char- 
acter of  the  Lord." 

But  this  is  not  all.  If  all  these  varied  re- 
flections from  our  so-called  secret  life  are  pat- 
ent to  the  world,  how  close  the  writing,  how 
complete   the   record,   within   the   soul   itself  ? 


THE   FORMULA   OF   SANCTIFICATION.        2/ 

For  the  influences  we  meet  are  not  simply- 
held  for  a  moment  on  the  polished  surface  and 
thrown  off  again  into  space.  Each  is  retained 
where  first  it  fell,  and  stored  up  in  the  soul  for 
ever. 

This  law  of  Assimilation  is  the  second,  and 
by  far  the  most  impressive  truth  which  under- 
lies the  formula  of  sanctification  —  the  truth 
that  men  are  not  only  mirrors,  but  that  these 
mirrors,  so  far  from  being  mere  reflectors  of  the 
fleeting  things  they  see,  transfer  into  their  own 
inmost  substance,  and  hold  in  permanent  pres- 
ervation, the  things  that  they  reflect.  No  one 
knows  how  the  soul  can  hold  these  things. 
No  one  knows  how  the  miracle  is  done.  No 
phenomenon  in  nature,  no  process  in  chemistry, 
no  chapter  in  necromancy  can  even  help  us  to 
begin  to  understand  this  amazing  operation. 
For,  think  of  it,  the  past  is  not  only  focussed 
there,  in  a  man's  soul,  it  is  there.  How  could 
it  be  reflected  from  there  if  it  were  not  there  ? 


28  THE   CHANGED   LIFE. 

All  things  that  he  has  ever  seen,  known,  felt, 
believed  of  the  surrounding  world  are  now 
within  him,  have  become  part  of  him,  in  part 
are  him — he  has  been  changed  into  their 
image.  He  may  deny  it,  he  may  resent  it, 
but  they  are  there.  They  do  not  adhere  to 
him,  they  are  transfused  through  him.  He 
cannot  alter  or  rub  them  out.  They  are 
not  in  his  memory,  they  are  in  him.  His 
soul  is  as  they  have  filled  it,  made  it,  left  it. 
These  things,  these  books,  these  events,  these 
influences  are  his  makers.  In  their  hands  are 
life  and  death,  beauty  and  deformity.  When 
once  the  image  or  likeness  of  any  of  these  is 
fairly  presented  to  the  soul,  no  power  on 
earth  can  hinder  two  things  happening— it 
must  be  absorbed  into  the  soul,  and  for  ever 
reflected  back  again  from  character. 

Upon  these  astounding  yet  perfectly  obvious 
psychological  facts,  Paul  bases  his  doctrine  of 
sanctification.     He    sees    that    character    is    a 


THE   FORMULA   OF   SANCTIFICATION.        29 


thing  built  up  by  slow  degrees,  that  it  is 
hourly  changing  for  better  or  for  worse  ac- 
cording to  the  images  which  flit  across  it.  One 
step  further  and  the  whole  length  and  breadth 
of  the  application  of  these  ideas  to  the  central 
problem  of  religion  will  stand  before  us. 


THE   ALCHEMY   OF    INFLUENCE. 

If  events  change  men,  much  more  persons. 
No  man  can  meet  another  on  the  street  with- 
out making  some  mark  upon  him.  We  say 
we  exchange  words  when  we  meet  ;  what  we 
exchange  is  souls.  And  when  intercourse  is 
very  close  and  very  frequent,  so  complete  is 
this  exchange  that  recognizable  bits  of  the 
one  soul  begin  to  show  in  the  other's  nature, 
and  the  second  is  conscious  of  a  similar  and 
growing  debt  to  the  first.  This  mysterious 
approximating  of  two  souls  who  has  not  wit- 
nessed ?  Who  has  not  watched  some  old 
couple  come  down  life's  pilgrimage  hand  in 
hand,  with   such  gentle  trust   and   joy  in   one 


THE   ALCHEMY   OF   INFLUENCE.  3 1 

another  that  their  very  faces  wore  the  self- 
same look  ?  These  were  not  two  souls ;  it 
was  a  composite  soul.  It  did  not  matter  to 
which  of  the  two  you  spoke,  you  would  have 
said  the  same  words  to  either.  It  was  quite 
indifferent  which  replied,  each  would  have  said 
the  same.  Half  a  century's  reflecting  had  told 
upon  them  ;  they  were  changed  into  the  same 
image.  It  is  the  Law  of  Influence  that  we 
become  like  those  whom  we  habitually  admire  : 
these  had  become  like  because  they  habitually 
admired.  Through  all  the  range  of  literature, 
of  history,  and  biography  this  law  presides. 
Men  are  all  mosaics  of  other  men.  There 
was  a  savour  of  David  about  Jonathan  and  a 
savour  of  Jonathan  about  David.  Jean  Val- 
jean,  in  the  masterpiece  of  Victor  Hugo,  is 
Bishop  Bienvenu  risen  from  the  dead.  Me- 
tempsychosis is  a  fact.  George  Eliot's  message 
to  the  world  was  that  men  and  women  make 
men  and  women.     The  Family,  the  cradle  of 


32  THE   CHANGED   LIFE. 

mankind,  has  no  meaning  apart  from  this. 
Society  itself  is  nothing  but  a  rallying  point 
for  these  omnipotent  forces  to  do  their  work. 
On  the  doctrine  of  Influence,  in  short,  the 
whole  vast  pyramid  of  humanity  is  built. 

But  it  was  reserved  for  Paul  to  make  the 
supreme  application  of  the  Law  of  Influence. 
It  was  a  tremendous  inference  to  make,  but 
he  never  hesitated.  He  himself  was  a  changed 
man ;  he  knew  exactly  what  had  done  it ;  it 
was  Christ.  On  the  Damascus  road  they  met, 
and  from  that  hour  his  life  was  absorbed  in  His. 
The  effect  could  not  but  follow — on  words, 
on  deeds,  on  career,  on  creed.  The  "  impressed 
forces  "  did  their  vital  work.  He  became  like 
Him  Whom  he  habitually  loved.  "  So  we 
all,"  he  writes,  "  reflecting  as  a  mirror  the  glory 
of  Christ,  are  changed  into  the  same  image." 

Nothing  could  be  more  simple,  more  intel- 
ligible, more  natural,  more  supernatural.  It  is 
an  analogy   from  an  everyday  fact.     Since  we 


THE   ALCHEMY   OF  INFLUENCE.  33 

are  what  we  are  by  the  impacts  of  those  who 
surround  us,  those  who  surround  themselves 
with  the  highest  will  be  those  who  change 
into  the  highest.  There  are  some  men  and 
some  women  in  whose  company  we  are  al- 
ways at  our  best.  While  with  them  we  can- 
not think  mean  thoughts  or  speak  ungenerous 
words.  Their  mere  presence  is  elevation, 
purification,  sanctity.  All  the  best  stops  in 
our  nature  are  drawn  out  by  their  intercourse, 
and  we  find  a  music  in  our  souls  that  was 
never  there  before.  Suppose  even  tJiat  influ- 
ence prolonged  through  a  month,  a  year,  a 
lifetime,  and  what  could  not  life  become  ? 
Here,  even  on  the  common  plane  of  life, 
talking  our  language,  walking  our  streets, 
working  side  by  side,  are  sanctifiers  of  souls ; 
here,  breathing  through  common  clay,  is  Hea- 
ven ;  here,  energies  charged  even  through  a 
temporal  medium  with  the  virtue  of  regenera- 
tion. If  to  live  with  men,  diluted  to  the 
3 


34  THE   CHANGED   LIFE. 

millionth  degree  with  the  virtue  of  the  High- 
est, can  exalt  and  purify  the  nature,  what 
bounds  can  be  set  to  the  influence  of  Christ  ? 
To  live  with  Socrates — with  unveiled  face — 
must  have  made  one  wise ;  with  Aristides, 
just.  Francis  of  Assisi  must  have  made  one 
gentle  ;  Savonarola,  strong.  But  to  have  lived 
with  Christ  ?  To  have  lived  with  Christ  must 
have  made  one  like  Christ ;  that  is  to  say, 
A  Christian. 

As  a  matter  of  fact,  to  live  with  Christ  did 
produce  this  effect.  It  produced  it  in  the  case 
of  Paul.  And  during  Christ's  lifetime  the  ex- 
periment was  tried  in  an  even  more  startling 
form.  A  few  raw,  unspiritual,  uninspiring  men, 
were  admitted  to  the  inner  circle  of  His  friend- 
ship. The  change  began  at  once.  Day  by  day 
we  can  almost  see  the  first  disciples  grow. 
First  there  steals  over  them  the  faintest  possible 
adumbration  of  His  character,  and  occasionally, 
very   occasionally,   they  do   a  thing,  or  say   a 


THE   ALCHEMY   OF   INFLUENCE.  35 

thing  that  they  could  not  have  done  or  said  had 
they  not  been  living  there.  Slowly  the  spell  of 
His  Life  deepens.  Reach  after  reach  of  their 
nature  is  overtaken,  thawed,  subjugated,  sanc- 
tified. Their  manners  soften,  their  words  be- 
come more  gentle,  their  conduct  more  unselfish. 
As  swallows  who  have  found  a  summer,  as 
frozen  buds  the  spring,  their  starved  humanity 
bursts  into  a  fuller  life.  They  do  not  know 
how  it  is,  but  they  are  different  men.  One  day 
they  find  themselves  like  their  Master,  going 
about  and  doing  good.  To  themselves  it  is  un- 
accountable, but  they  cannot  do  otherwise. 
They  were  not  told  to  do  it,  it  came  to  them  to 
do  it.  But  the  people  who  watch  them  know 
well  how  to  account  for  it — "  They  have  been," 
they  whisper,  "with  Jesus."  Already  even, 
the  mark  and  seal  of  His  character  is  upon 
them  —  "  They  have  been  with  Jesus,"  Un- 
paralleled phenomenon,  that  these  poor  fisher- 
men   should    remind    other    men    of    Christ ! 


36  THE  CHANGED   LIFE. 

Stupendous  victory  and  mystery  of  regenera- 
tion that  mortal  men  should  suggest  to  the 
world,  God  ! 

There  is  something  almost  melting  in  the 
way  His  contemporaries,  and  John  especially, 
speak  of  the  Influence  of  Christ.  John  lived 
himself  in  daily  wonder  at  Him ;  he  was  over- 
powered, overawed,  entranced,  transfigured.  To 
his  mind  it  was  impossible  for  anyone  to  come 
under  this  influence  and  ever  be  the  same 
again.  "  Whosoever  abideth  in  Him  sin- 
neth  not,"  he  said.  It  was  inconceivable 
that  he  should  sin,  as  inconceivable  as  that  ice 
should  live  in  a  burning  sun,  or  darkness  co- 
exist with  noon.  If  anyone  did  sin,  it  was  to 
John  the  simple  proof  that  he  could  never  have 
met  Christ.  "Whosoever  sinneth,"  he  ex- 
claims, "hath  not  seen  Him^  neither  known 
Ilim"  Sin  was  abashed  in  this  Presence.  Its 
roots  withered.  Its  sway  and  victory  were  for 
ever  at  an  end. 


THE  ALCHEMY  OF  INFLUENCE.      37 

But  these  were  His  contemporaries.  It  was 
easy  for  them  to  be  influenced  by  Him,  for  they 
were  every  day  and  all  the  day  together.  But 
how  can  we  mirror  that  which  we  have  never 
seen  ?  How  can  all  this  stupendous  result  be 
produced  by  a  Memory,  by  the  scantiest  of  all 
Biographies,  by  One  who  lived  and  left  this 
earth  eighteen  hundred  years  ago  ?  How  can 
modern  men  to-day  make  Christ,  the  absent 
Christ,  their  most  constant  companion  still  ? 
The  answer  is  that  Friendship  is  a  spiritual 
thing.  It  is  independent  of  Matter,  or  Space, 
or  Time.  That  which  I  love  in  my  friend  is 
not  that  which  I  see.  What  influences  me  in 
my  friend  is  not  his  body  but  his  spirit.  It 
would  have  been  an  ineffable  experience  truly 
to  have  lived  at  that  time 

"  I  think  when  I  read  the  sweet  story  of  old, 
How  when  Jesus  was  here  among  men. 
He  took  little  children  like  lambs  to  His  fold, 
I  should  like  to  have  been  with  Him  then. 


38  THE   CHANGED  LIFE. 

"  I  wish  that  His  hand  had  been  laid  on  my  head, 
That  His  arms  had  been  thrown  around  me, 
And  that  I  had  seen  His  kind  look  when  He  said, 
'  Let  the  little  ones  come  unto  Me.' " 

And  yet,  if  Christ  were  to  come  into  the  world 
again  few  of  us  probably  would  ever  have  a 
chance  of  seeing  Him.  Millions  of  her  subjects, 
in  this  little  country,  have  never  seen  their  own 
Queen.  And  there  would  be  millions  of  the 
subjects  of  Christ  who  could  never  get  within 
speaking  distance  of  Him  if  He  were  here. 
Our  companionship  with  Him,  like  all  true 
companionship,  is  a  spiritual  communion.  All 
friendship,  all  love,  human  and  Divine,  is  pure- 
ly spiritual.  It  was  after  He  was  risen  that 
He  influenced  even  the  disciples  most.  Hence 
in  reflecting  the  character  of  Christ,  it  is  no 
real  obstacle  that  we  may  never  have  been  in 
visible  contact  with  Himself. 

There  lived  once  a  young  girl  whose  perfect 
grace  of  character  was  the  wonder  of  those  who 


THE  ALCHEMY  OF  INFLUENCE.  39 

knew  her.  She  wore  on  her  neck  a  gold  locket 
which  no  one  was  ever  allowed  to  open.  One 
day,  in  a  moment  of  unusual  confidence,  one 
of  her  companions  was  allowed  to  touch 
its  spring  and  learn  its  secret.  She  saw 
written  these  words  — "  Whom  having  not 
seen,  I  love"  That  was  the  secret  of  her 
beautiful  life.  She  had  been  changed  into 
the  Same  Image. 

Now  this  is  not  imitation,  but  a  much  deeper 
thing.  Mark  this  distinction.  For  the  differ- 
ence in  the  process,  as  well  as  in  the  result,  may 
be  as  great  as  that  between  a  photograph  se- 
cured by  the  infallible  pencil  of  the  sun,  and  the 
rude  outline  from  a  school-boy's  chalk.  Imita- 
tion is  mechanical,  reflection  organic.  The  one 
is  occasional,  the  other  habitual.  In  the  one 
case,  man  comes  to  God  and  imitates  Him ;  in 
the  other,  God  comes  to  man  and  imprints 
Himself  upon  Him.  It  is  quite  true  that  there 
is   an   imitation   of   Christ    which   amounts   to 


40  THE  CHANGED  LIFE. 

reflection.     But    Paul's  term   includes  all  that 
the  other  holds,  and  is  open  to  no  mistake. 

"  Make  Christ  your  most  constant  compan- 
ion " — this  is  what  it  practically  means  for  us. 
Be  more  under  His  influence  than  under  any 
other  influence.  Ten  minutes  spent  in  His 
society  every  day,  ay,  two  minutes  if  it  be  face 
to  face,  and  heart  to  heart,  will  make  the  whole 
day  different.  Every  character  has  an  inward 
spring,  let  Christ  be  it.  Every  action  has  a 
key-note,  let  Christ  set  it.  Yesterday  you  got 
a  certain  letter.  You  sat  down  and  wrote  a 
reply  which  almost  scorched  the  paper.  You 
picked  the  cruellest  adjectives  you  knew  and 
sent  it  forth,  without  a  pang,  to  do  its  ruthless 
work.  You  did  that  because  your  life  was  set 
in  the  wrong  key.  You  began  the  day  with 
the  mirror  placed  at  the  wrong  angle.  To- 
morrow, at  daybreak,  turn  it  towards  Him,  and 
even  to  your  enemy  the  fashion  of  your  coun- 
tenance will  be  changed.     Whatever  you  then 


THE  ALCHEMY  OF  INFLUENCE.      4I 

do,  one  thing  you  will  find  you  could  not  do — 
you  could  not  write  that  letter.  Your  first  im- 
pulse may  be  the  same,  your  judgment  may  be 
unchanged  but  if  you  try  it  the  ink  will  dry  on 
your  pen,  and  you  will  rise  from  your  desk  an 
unavenged,  but  a  greater  and  more  Christian, 
man.  Throughout  the  whole  day  your  actions, 
down  to  the  last  detail,  will  do  homage  to  that 
early  vision.  Yesterday  you  thought  mostly 
about  yourself.  To-day  the  poor  will  meet 
you,  and  you  will  feed  them.  The  helpless,  the 
tempted,  the  sad,  will  throng  about  you,  and 
each  you  will  befriend.  Where  were  all  these 
people  yesterday  ?  Where  they  are  to-day,  but 
you  did  not  see  them.  It  is  in  reflected  light  that 
the  poor  are  seen.  But  your  soul  to-day  is  not  at 
the  ordinary  angle.  "  Things  which  are  not  seen  " 
are  visible.  For  a  few  short  hours  you  live  the 
Eternal  Life.  The  eternal  life,  the  life  of  faith, 
is  simply  the  life  of  the  higher  vision.  Faith 
is  an  attitude — a  mirror  set  at  the  right  angle. 


42  THE  CHANGED   LIFE. 

When  to-morrow  is  over,  and  in  the  evening 
you  review  it,  you  will  wonder  how  you  did  it. 
You  will  not  be  conscious  that  you  strove  for 
anything,  or  imitated  anything,  or  crucified 
anything.  You  will  be  conscious  of  Christ ; 
that  He  was  with  you,  that  without  compulsion 
you  were  yet  compelled,  that  without  force,  or 
noise,  or  proclamation,  the  revolution  was  ac- 
complished. You  do  not  congratulate  your- 
self as  one  who  has  done  a  mighty  deed,  or 
achieved  a  personal  success,  or  stored  up  a  fund 
of  "  Christian  experience  "  to  ensure  the  same 
result  again.  What  you  are  conscious  of  is 
"  the  glory  of  the  Lord."  And  what  the  world 
is  conscious  of,  if  the  result  be  a  true  one,  is 
also  "the  glory  of  the  Lord."  In  looking  at  a 
mirror  one  does  not  see  the  mirror,  or  think  of 
it,  but  only  of  what  it  reflects.  For  a  mirror 
never  calls  attention  to  itself — except  when 
there  are  flaws  in  it. 

That  this  is   a   real    experience    and   not   a 


THE  ALCHEMY  OF  INFLUENCE.     43 

vision,  that  this  life  is  possible  to  men,  is  be- 
ing lived  by  men  to-day,  is  simple  biographical 
fact.  From  a  thousand  witnesses  I  cannot  for- 
bear to  summon  one.  The  following  are  the 
words  of  one  of  the  highest  intellects  this  age 
has  known,  a  man  who  shared  the  burdens  of 
his  country  as  few  have  done,  and  who,  not  in 
the  shadows  of  old  age,  but  in  the  high  noon 
of  his  success,  gave  this  confession — I  quote  it 
with  only  a  few  abridgments — to  the  world 

"  I  want  to  speak  to-night  only  a  little,  but 
that  little  I  desire  to  speak  of  the  sacred  name 
of  Christ,  who  is  my  life,  my  inspiration,  my 
hope,  and  my  surety.  I  cannot  help  stopping 
and  looking  back  upon  the  past.  And  I  wish, 
as  if  I  had  never  done  it  before,  to  bear  witness, 
not  only  that  it  is  by  the  grace  of  God,  but  that 
it  is  by  the  grace  of  God  as  manifested  in 
Christ  Jesus,  that  I  am  what  I  am.  I  recognize 
the  sublimity  and  grandeur  of  the  revelation  of 
God    in    His   eternal    fatherhood   as    one   that 


44  THE  CHANGED  LIFE. 

made  the  heavens,  that  founded  the  earth,  and 
that  regards  all  the  tribes  of  the  earth,  compre- 
hending them  in  one  universal  mercy ;  but  it  is 
the  God  that  is  manifested  in  Jesus  Christ,  re- 
vealed by  His  life,  made  known  by  the  inflec- 
tions of  His  feelings,  by  His  discourse,  and  by 
His  deeds — it  is  that  God  that  I  desire  to  con- 
fess to-night,  and  of  whom  I  desire  to  say,  *  By 
the  love  of  God  in  Christ  Jesus  I  am  what  I 
am.' 

"If  you  ask  me  precisely  what  I  mean  by 
that,  I  say,  frankly,  that  more  than  any  recog- 
nized influence  of  my  father  or  my  mother  upon 
me ;  more  than  the  social  influence  of  all  the 
members  of  my  father's  household ;  more,  so  far 
as  I  can  trace  it,  or  so  far  as  I  am  made  aware 
of  it,  than  all  the  social  influences  of  eveiy 
kind,  Christ  has  had  the  formation  of  my  mind 
and  my  disposition.  My  hidden  ideals  of  what 
is  beautiful  I  have  drawn  from  Christ.  My 
thoughts  of  what  is  manly,  and  noble,  and  pure, 
have  almost  all  of  them  arisen  from  the  Lord 
Jesus  Christ.  Many  men  have  educated  them- 
selves by  reading  Plutarch's  Lives  of  the  An- 


THE  ALCHEMY  OF  INFLUENCE.     45 

cient  Worthies,  and  setting  before  themselves 
one  and  another  of  these  that  in  different  ages 
have  achieved  celebrity;  and  they  have  recog- 
nized the  great  power  of  these  men  on  them- 
selves. Now  I  do  not  perceive  that  poet,  or 
philosopher,  or  reformer,  or  general,  or  any 
other  great  man,  ever  has  dwelt  in  my  imagina- 
tion and  in  my  thought  as  the  simple  Jesus  has. 
For  more  than  twenty-five  years  I  instinctively 
have  gone  to  Christ  to  draw  a  measure  and  a 
rule  for  everything.  Whenever  there  has  been 
a  necessity  for  it,  I  have  sought — and  at  last  al- 
most spontaneously — to  throw  myself  into  the 
companionship  of  Christ ;  and  early,  by  my  im- 
agination, I  could  see  Him  standing  and  look- 
ing quietly  and  lovingly  upon  me.  There 
seemed  almost  to  drop  from  His  face  an  influ- 
ence upon  me  that  suggested  what  was  the 
right  thing  in  the  controlling  of  passion,  in  the 
subduing  of  pride,  in  the  overcoming  of  selfish- 
ness; and  it  is  from  Christ,  manifested  to  my 
inward  eye,  that  I  have  consciously  derived 
more  ideals,  more  models,  more  influences,  than 
from  any  human  character  whatever. 


46  THE  CHANGED   LIFE. 

"  That  is  not  all.  I  feel  conscious  that  I  have 
derived  from  the  Lord  Jesus  Christ  every 
thought  that  makes  heaven  a  reality  to  me,  and 
every  thought  that  paves  the  road  that  lies  be- 
tween me  and  heaven.  All  my  conceptions 
of  the  progress  of  grace  in  the  soul ;  all  the 
steps  by  which  divine  life  is  evolved ;  all  the 
ideals  that  overhang  the  blessed  sphere  which 
awaits  us  beyond  this  world  —  these  are  de- 
rived from  the  Saviour.  The  life  that  I  now 
live  in  the  flesh  I  live  by  the  faith  of  the  Son 
of  God. 

"  That  is  not  all.  Much  as  my  future  includes 
all  these  elements  which  go  to  make  the  blessed 
fabric  of  earthly  life,  yet,  after  all,  what  the 
summer  is  compared  with  all  its  earthly  pro- 
ducts— flowers,  and  leaves,  and  grass — that  is 
Christ  compared  with  all  the  products  of  Christ 
in  my  mind  and  in  my  soul.  All  the  flowers 
and  leaves  of  sympathy ;  all  the  twining  joys 
that  come  from  my  heart  as  a  Christian — these 
I  take  and  hold  in  the  future,  but  they  are  to 
me  what  the  flowers  and  leaves  of  summer  are 
compared  with  the  sun  that  makes  the  summer. 


THE  ALCHEMY  OF  INFLUENCE.     47 

Christ  is  the  Alpha  and  Omega,  the  beginning 
and  the  end  of  my  better  life. 

"  When  I  read  the  Bible,  I  gather  a  great 
deal  from  the  Old  Testament,  and  from  the 
Pauline  portions  of  the  New  Testament ;  but 
after  all,  I  am  conscious  that  the  fruit  of  the 
Bible  is  Christ.  That  is  what  I  read  it  for,  and 
that  is  what  I  find  that  is  worth  reading.  I 
have  had  a  hunger  to  be  loved  of  Christ.  You 
all  know,  in  some  relations,  what  it  is  to  be 
hungry  for  love.  Your  heart  seems  unsatisfied 
till  you  can  draw  something  more  toward  you 
from  those  that  are  dearest  to  you.  There  have 
been  times  when  I  have  had  an  unspeakable 
heart-hunger  for  Christ's  love.  My  sense  of  sin 
is  never  strong  when  I  think  of  the  law ;  my 
sense  of  sin  is  strong  when  I  think  of  love — if 
there  is  any  difference  between  law  and  love. 
It  is  when  drawing  near  the  Lord  Jesus  Christ, 
and  longing  to  be  loved,  that  I  have  the  most 
vivid  sense  of  unsymmetry,  of  imperfection,  of 
absolute  unworthiness,  and  of  my  sinfulness. 
Character  and  conduct  are  never  so  vividly  set 
before  me  as  when  in  silence  I  bend  in  the  pres- 


48  THE   CHANGED   LIFE. 

ence  of  Christ,  revealed  not  in  wrath,  but  in 
love  to  me.  I  never  so  much  long  to  be  lovely, 
that  I  may  be  loved,  as  when  I  have  this  revela- 
tion of  Christ  before  my  mind. 

"  In  looking  back  upon  my  experience,  that 
part  of  my  life  which  stands  out,  and  which  I 
remember  most  vividly,  is  just  that  part  that 
has  had  some  conscious  association  with  Christ. 
All  the  rest  is  pale,  and  thin,  and  lies  like 
clouds  on  the  horizon.  Doctrines,  systems, 
measures,  methods — what  may  be  called  the 
necessary  mechanical  and  external  part  of  wor- 
ship ;  the  part  which  the  senses  would  recog- 
nize— this  seems  to  have  withered  and  fallen  off 
like  leaves  of  last  summer ;  but  that  part  which 
has  taken  hold  of  Christ  abides." 


Can  anyone  hear  this  life-music,  with  its 
throbbing  refrain  of  Christ,  and  remain  un- 
moved by  envy  or  desire  ?  Yet,  till  we  have 
lived  like  this  we  have  never  lived  at  all. 


THE  FIRST   EXPERIMENT. 

Then  you  reduce  religion  to  a  common 
Friendship  ?  A  common  Friendship  —  Who 
talks  of  a  common  Friendship  ?  There  is  no 
such  thing  in  the  world.  On  earth  no  word  is 
more  sublime.  Friendship  is  the  nearest  thing 
we  know  to  what  religion  is,  God  is  love. 
And  to  make  religion  akin  to  Friendship  is 
simply  to  give  it  the  highest  expression  con- 
ceivable by  man.  But  if  by  demurring  to  "  a 
common  friendship  "  is  meant  a  protest  against 
the  greatest  and  the  holiest  in  religion  being 
spoken  of  in  intelligible  terms,  then  I  am  afraid 
the  objection  is  all  too  real.  Men  always  look 
for  a  mystery  when  one  talks  of  sanctification  ; 


50  THE   CHANGED   LIFE. 


some  mystery  apart  from  that  which  must  ever 
be  mysterious  wherever  Spirit  works.  It  is 
thought  some  peculiar  secret  lies  behind  it, 
some  occult  experience  which  only  the  initiated 
know.  Thousands  of  persons  go  to  church 
every  Sunday  hoping  to  solve  this  mystery. 
At  meetings,  at  conferences,  many  a  time  they 
have  reached  what  they  thought  was  the  very 
brink  of  it,  but  somehow  no  further  revelation 
came.  Poring  over  religious  books,  how  often 
were  they  not  within  a  paragraph  of  it ;  the 
next  page,  the  next  sentence,  would  discover 
all,  and  they  would  be  borne  on  a  flowing  tide 
for  ever.  But  nothing  happened.  The  next 
sentence  and  the  next  page  were  read,  and  still 
it  eluded  them  ;  and  though  the  promise  of  its 
coming  kept  faithfully  up  to  the  end,  the  last 
chapter  found  them  still  pursuing.  Why  did 
nothing  happen  ?  Because  there  was  nothings 
to  happen  —  nothing  of  the  kind  they  were 
looking  for.    Why  did  it  elude  them  ?    Because 


THE   FIRST   EXPERIMENT.  5 1 

there  was  no  "  it."  When  shall  we  learn  that 
the  pursuit  of  holiness  is  simply  the  pursuit  of 
Christ  ?  When  shall  we  substitute  for  the  "  it  " 
of  a  fictitious  aspiration,  the  approach  to  a 
Living  Friend  ?  Sanctity  is  in  character  and 
not  in  moods ;  Divinity  in  our  own  plain  calm 
humanity,  and  in  no  mystic  rapture  of  the 
soul. 

And  yet  there  are  others  who,  for  exactly 
a  contrary  reason,  will  find  scant  satisfaction 
here.  Their  complaint  is  not  that  a  religion 
expressed  in  terms  of  Friendship  is  too  homely, 
but  that  it  is  still  too  mystical.  To  "abide" 
in  Christ,  to  "  make  Christ  our  most  constant 
companion,"  is  to  them  the  purest  mysticism. 
They  want  something  absolutely  tangible  and 
absolutely  direct.  These  are  not  the  poetical 
souls  who  seek  a  sign,  a  mysticism  in  excess ; 
but  the  prosaic  natures  whose  want  is  mathe- 
matical definition  in  details.  Yet  it  is  perhaps 
not   possible  to  reduce  this  problem  to  much 


52  THE  CHANGED  LIFE. 

more  rigid  elements.  The  beauty  of  Friendship 
is  its  infinity.  One  can  never  evacuate  life  of 
mysticism.  Home  is  full  of  it,  love  is  full  of  it, 
religion  is  full  of  it.  Why  stumble  at  that  in 
the  relation  of  man  to  Christ  which  is  natural 
in  the  relation  of  man  to  man  ? 

If  anyone  cannot  conceive  or  realize  a  mysti- 
cal relation  with  Christ,  perhaps  all  that  can  be 
done  is  to  help  him  to  step  on  to  it  by  still 
plainer  analogies  from  common  life.  How  do  I 
know  Shakespeare  or  Dante  ?  By  communing 
with  their  words  and  thoughts.  Many  men 
know  Dante  better  than  their  own  fathers.  He 
influences  them  more.  As  a  spiritual  presence 
he  is  more  near  to  them,  as  a  spiritual  force 
more  real.  Is  there  any  reason  why  a  greater 
than  Shakespeare  or  Dante,  who  also  walked 
this  earth,  who  left  great  words  behind  Him, 
who  has  great  works  everywhere  in  the  world 
now,  should  not  also  instruct,  inspire,  and 
mould  the  characters  of  men  ?     I  do  not  limit 


THE  FIRST  EXPERIMENT.  53 

Christ's  influence  to  this.  It  is  this,  and  it  is 
more.  But  Christ,  so  far  from  resenting  or 
discouraging  this  relation  of  Friendship,  Him- 
self proposed  it.  "  Abide  in  Me  "  was  almost 
His  last  word  to  the  world.  And  He  partly 
met  the  difficulty  of  those  who  feel  its  intan- 
gibleness  by  adding  the  practical  clause,  "  If  ye 
abide  in  Me  and  My  words  abide  in  you." 

Begin  with  His  words.  Words  can  scarcely 
ever  be  long  impersonal.  Christ  Himself  was 
a  Word,  a  word  made  Flesh.  Make  His  words 
flesh;  do  them,  live  them,  and  you  must  live 
Christ.  "  He  that  keepeth  My  commandments, 
he  it  is  that  loveth  Me."  Obey  Him  and  you 
must  love  Him.  Abide  in  Him  and  you  must 
obey  Him.  Cultivate  His  Friendship.  Live 
after  Christ,  in  His  Spirit,  as  in  His  Presence, 
and  it  is  difficult  to  think  what  m.ore  you  can 
do.  Take  this  at  least  as  a  first  lesson,  as  in- 
troduction. If  you  cannot  at  once  and  always 
feel  the  play  of  His  life  upon  yours,  watch  for 


54  THE   CHANGED   LIFE. 

it  also  indirectly.  "  The  whole  earth  is  full  of 
the  character  of  the  Lord."  Christ  is  the  Light 
of  the  world,  and  much  of  His  Light  is  reflected 
from  things  in  the  world  —  even  from  clouds. 
Sunlight  is  stored  in  every  leaf,  from  leaf 
through  coal,  and  it  comforts  us  thence  when 
days  are  dark  and  we  cannot  see  the  sun. 
Christ  shines  through  men,  through  books, 
through  history,  through  nature,  music,  art. 
Look  for  Him  there.  "  Every  day  one  should 
either  look  at  a  beautiful  picture,  or  hear  beau- 
tiful music,  or  read  a  beautiful  poem."  The 
real  danger  of  mysticism  is  not  making  it  broad 
enough. 

Do  not  think  that  nothing  is  happening  be- 
cause you  do  not  see  yourself  grow,  or  hear 
the  whirr  of  the  machinery.  All  great  things 
grow  noiselessly.  You  can  see  a  mushroom 
grow,  but  never  a  child.  Mr.  Darwin  tells  us 
that  Evolution  proceeds  by  "  numerous,  success- 
ive,   and    slight    modifications."      Paul    knew 


THE   FIRST   EXPERIMENT.  55 

that,  and  put  it,  only  in  more  beautiful  words, 
into  the  heart  of  his  formula.  He  said  for  the 
comforting  of  all  slowly  perfecting  souls  that 
they  grew  "  from  character  to  character."  "  The 
inward  man,"  he  says  elsewhere,  "  is  renewed 
from  day  to  day."  All  thorough  work  is  slow ; 
all  true  development  by  minute,  slight,  and 
insensible  metamorphoses.  The  higher  the 
structure,  moreover,  the  slower  the  progress. 
As  the  biologist  runs  his  eye  over  the  long 
Ascent  of  Life  he  sees  the  lowest  forms  of  ani- 
mals develop  in  an  hour ;  the  next  above  these 
reach  maturity  in  a  day;  those  higher  still 
take  weeks  or  months  to  perfect ;  but  the  few 
at  the  top  demand  the  long  experiment  of 
years.  If  a  child  and  an  ape  are  born  on  the 
same  day  the  last  will  be  in  full  possession  of 
its  faculties  and  doing  the  active  work  of 
life  before  the  child  has  left  its  cradle.  Life  is 
the  cradle  of  eternity.  As  the  man  is  to  the 
animal  in  the  slowness  of  his  evolution,  so  is 


56  THE  CHANGED  LIFE. 

the  spiritual  man  to  the  natural  man.  Founda- 
tions which  have  to  bear  the  weight  of  an  eter- 
nal life  must  be  surely  laid.  Character  is  to 
wear  for  ever;  who  will  wonder  or  grudge  that 
it  cannot  be  developed  in  a  day  ? 

To  await  the  growing  of  a  soul,  neverthe- 
less, is  an  almost  Divine  act  of  faith.  How 
pardonable,  surely,  the  impatience  of  deformity 
with  itself,  of  a  consciously  despicable  charac- 
ter standing  before  Christ,  wondering,  yearn- 
ing, hungering  to  be  like  that  ?  Yet  must 
one  trust  the  process  fearlessly,  and  without 
misgiving.  "The  Lord  the  Spirit"  will  do 
His  part.  The  tempting  expedient  is,  in 
haste  for  abrupt  or  visible  progress,  to  try 
some  method  less  spiritual,  or  to  defeat  the 
end  by  watching  for  effects  instead  of  keep- 
ing the  eye  on  the  Cause.  A  photograph 
prints  from  the  negative  only  while  exposed 
to  the  sun.  While  the  artist  is  looking  to  see 
how  it  is  getting  on  he  simply  stops  the  get- 


THE  FIRST  EXPERIMENT.  57 

ting  on.  Whatever  of  wise  supervision  the 
soul  may  need,  it  is  certain  it  can  never  be 
over-exposed,  or  that,  being  exposed,  any- 
thing else  in  the  world  can  improve  the  result 
or  quicken  it.  The  creation  of  a  new  heart, 
the  renewing  of  a  right  spirit  is  an  omnipotent 
work  of  God.  Leave  it  to  the  Creator.  "  He 
which  hath  begun  a  good  work  in  you  will 
perfect  it  unto  that  day." 

No  man,  nevertheless,  who  feels  the  worth 
and  solemnity  of  what  is  at  stake  will  be 
careless  as  to  his  progress.  To  become  like 
Christ  is  the  only  thing  in  the  world  worth 
caring  for,  the  thing  before  which  every  ambi- 
tion of  man  is  folly,  and  all  lower  achieve- 
ment vain.  Those  only  who  make  this  quest 
the  supreme  desire  and  passion  of  their  lives 
can  even  begin  to  hope  to  reach  it.  If,  there- 
fore, it  has  seemed  up  to  this  point  as  if  all 
depended  on  passivity,  let  me  now  assert,  with 
conviction  more  intense,  that   all  depends   on 


58  THE  CHANGED   LIFE. 

activity.  A  religion  of  effortless  adoration 
may  be  a  religion  for  an  angel  but  never  for 
a  man.  Not  in  the  contemplative,  but  in  the 
active,  lies  true  hope;  not  in  rapture,  but  in 
reality,  lies  true  life ;  not  in  the  realm  of 
ideals,  but  among  tangible  things,  is  man's 
sanctification  wrought.  Resolution,  effort, 
pain,  self-crucifixion,  agony  —  all  the  things 
already  dismissed  as  futile  in  themselves  must 
now  be  restored  to  office,  and  a  tenfold  re- 
sponsibility laid  upon  them.  For  what  is 
their  office  ?  Nothing  less  than  to  move  the 
vast  inertia  of  the  soul,  and  place  it,  and 
keep  it  where  the  spiritual  forces  will  act 
upon  it.  It  is  to  rally  the  forces  of  the  will, 
and  keep  the  surface  of  the  mirror  bright  and 
ever  in  position.  It  is  to  uncover  the  face 
which  is  to  look  at  Christ,  and  draw  down  the 
veil  when  unhallowed  sights  are  near.  You 
have,  perhaps,  gone  with  an  astronomer  to 
watch  him  photograph  the  spectrum  of  a  star. 


THE   FIRST   EXPERIMENT.  59 


As  you  entered  the  dark  vault  of  the  ob- 
servatory you  saw  him  begin  by  lighting 
a  candle.  To  see  the  star  with  ?  No ;  but 
to  see  to  adjust  the  instrument  to  see  the 
star  with.  It  was  the  star  that  was  going 
to  take  the  photograph  ;  it  was,  also,  the 
astronomer.  For  a  long  time  he  worked  in 
the  dimness,  screwing  tubes  and  polishing 
lenses  and  adjusting  reflectors,  and  only  after 
much  labour  the  finely  focussed  instrument 
was  brought  to  bear.  Then  he  blew  out  the 
light,  and  left  the  star  to  do  its  work  upon 
the  plate  alone.  The  day's  task  for  the 
Christian  is  to  bring  his  instrument  to  bear. 
Having  done  that  he  may  blow  out  his  candle. 
All  the  evidences  of  Christianity  which  have 
brought  him  there,  all  aids  to  Faith,  all  acts 
of  Worship,  all  the  leverages  of  the  Church, 
all  Prayer  and  Meditation,  all  girding  of  the 
Will — these  lesser  processes,  these  candle-light 
activities   for   that   supreme   hour   may  be   set 


6o  THE  CHANGED   LIFE. 

aside.  But,  remember,  it  is  but  for  an  hour. 
The  wise  man  will  be  he  who  quickest  lights 
his  candle  ;  the  wisest  he  who  never  lets  it  out. 
To-morrow,  the  next  moment,  he,  a  poor,  dark- 
ened, blurred  soul,  may  need  it  again  to 
focus  the  Image  better,  to  take  a  mote  off  the 
lens,  to  clear  the  mirror  from  a  breath  with 
which  the  world  has  dulled  it. 

No  readjustment  is  ever  required  on  behalf 
of  the  Star.  That  is  one  great  fixed  point  in 
this  shifting  universe.  But  //le  world  moves. 
And  each  day,  each  hour,  demands  a  further 
motion  and  readjustment  for  the  soul.  A 
telescope  in  an  observatory  follows  a  star  by 
clockwork,  but  the  clockwork  of  the  soul  is 
called  the  Will.  Hence,  while  the  soul  in 
passivity  reflects  the  Image  of  the  Lord,  the 
Will  in  intense  activity  holds  the  mirror  in 
position  lest  the  drifting  motion  of  the  world 
bear  it  beyond  the  line  of  vision.  To  "  follow 
Christ"   is   largely  to   keep   the  soul    in   such 


THE   FIRST  EXPERIMENT.  6l 


position  as  will  allow  for  the  motion  of  the 
earth.  And  this  calculated  counteracting  of 
the  movements  of  a  world,  this  holding  of 
the  mirror  exactly  opposite  to  the  Mirrored, 
this  steadying  of  the  faculties  unerringly, 
through  cloud  and  earthquake,  fire  and  sword, 
is  the  stupendous  co-operating  labour  of  the 
Will.  It  is  all  man's  work.  It  is  all  Christ's 
work.  In  practice  it  is  both  ;  in  theory  it  is 
both.  But  the  wise  man  will  say  in  practice, 
"  It  depends  upon  myself." 

In  the  Galerie  des  Beaux  Arts  in  Paris 
there  stands  a  famous  statue.  It  was  the 
last  work  of  a  great  genius,  who,  like  many 
a  genius,  was  very  poor  and  lived  in  a  garret, 
which  served  as  studio  and  sleeping-room 
alike.  When  the  statue  was  all  but  finished, 
one  midnight  a  sudden  frost  fell  upon  Paris. 
The  sculptor  lay  awake  in  the  fireless  room 
and  thought  of  the  still  moist  clay,  thought 
how  the  water  would  freeze  in  the  pores  and 


62  THE  CHANGED   LIFE. 

destroy  in  an  hour  the  dream  of  his  life.  So 
the  old  man  rose  from  his  couch  and  heaped 
the  bed-clothes  reverently  round  his  work.  In 
the  morning,  when  the  neighbours  entered  the 
room  the  sculptor  was  dead.  But  the  statue 
lived. 

The  Image  of  Christ  that  is  forming  within 
us — that  is  life's  one  charge.  Let  every  proj- 
ect stand  aside  for  that.  "  Till  Christ  be 
formed,"  no  man's  work  is  finished,  no  re- 
ligion crowned,  no  life  has  fulfilled  its  end. 
Is  the  infinite  task  begun  ?  When,  how, 
are  we  to  be  different  ?  Time  cannot  change 
men.  Death  cannot  change  men.  Christ  can. 
Wherefore  put  on  Christ. 


THE  END. 


S'Ol 


THE  LIBRARY 
UNIVERSITY  OF  CALIFORNIA 

Santa  Barbara 


■^ 


THIS  BOOK  IS  DUE  ON  THE  LAST  DATE 
STAMPED  BELOW. 


,,[JC  SOUTHERN 


